How Long Does Whiplash Last?

You’re driving out of town with a friend. It seems the perfect weekend getaway. Driving through the mountainside and enjoying the view of a small village below. It is the perfect way to relax from all the stress and pressure that work has been putting on you all week. And then you get into a little car accident. Luckily, nobody was hurt too bad. Your friend managed to escape with minor scratches and bruises. And you, you got away with whiplash.

And so you stay at home for the first day of work instead of reporting to your boss. So there’s no pressure from work but now your body is aching. Your neck hurts so badly and so does your head. Your shoulders feel heavy and your back aches when you move. A whiplash just hurts. You’re probably already wondering how long you have to deal with all the pain. How long does whiplash last?

How long whiplash lasts is difficult to tell. It varies with people and with the circumstances as to how you got the whiplash. The duration of the whiplash depends on the severity of the injury. There are some cases wherein the person would only feel the symptoms for only a couple of hours or so after the incident. There are those who suffer for weeks and even months before they could fully recover. So it highly depends on the degree of injury and different people, although experienced the same accident, could still have different degrees of injury.

Weeks or months of suffering from a whiplash injury is the least of the things you would want to experience. There are some treatments that you could apply to whiplash injury just to ease the pain and help you keep going. Many people suffer from depression once they get into an accident and the pain from the injuries they sustained makes things more difficult to get back to work and to their normal lives. So seek medical attention and have some therapy sessions. And while you are still in pain, keep your soft neck collar. It will relieve your neck of the burden of carrying and supporting your head. A normal human head weighs from 6 to 11 pounds and you don’t want your injured carrying that load. Another thing you should note is that, don’t strain your neck, back, and head with exercises or stretching that are not recommended by your therapist or doctor. One wrong move could make things worse.